This blog used to be called EDL Extra. I was a supporter (neither a member nor a leader) of the EDL until 2012. This blog has retained the old web address.****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Predictably Tony Blair didn’t like this
pollution of his public image. After all Tony Blair is all about public image.
Thus Blair swiftly distanced himself from the EDL.

Blair’s ‘office’ said:

"You obviously haven't read the
article properly - there is nothing in common with what you have to say."

Even if this is false and Robinson had read
the article ‘properly’, Blair would still have needed to claim
otherwise. Any connection to the EDL is of course an abomination to these people.

Interestingly Blair, or his office, didn’t
say exactly how Robinson (or the EDL) had got the article ‘all wrong’. Nonetheless
image, not truth, is what has always matters to Tony Blair (as well as his
office).

Despite all that, I think it was a bad
mistake for Robinson to have accused Blair of fuelling divides
within communities because of his foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. This
is what Robinson actually said:

"u invaded Islamic countries #war criminal
then when Muslims react and get hostile it's against us in towns like Luton.”

The Islamic jihad is itself 1,400 years old.
In terms of 20th century Islamic terrorism alone, and in terms of
just one Islamic group, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood - its campaign of
bombings, assassinations and instigated riots date back to the late 1920s.

Sure, Iraq may not have helped. The problem
is, if it weren’t for Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan, these young male Islamists
would still find something to prove their jihadist and Islamic
credentials. They may cite Palestine and Israel. Or perhaps the banning of the
burka in France. Or, even more disturbingly, the former rule of Islam in India
and indeed in Spain. (In fact very Muslims do want to reconquer both Spain and
India ‘for Islam’!)

Above and beyond all this is the fact that
no UK troops, or American ones for that matter, are in Iraq today. The final British troops left in May 2009
(four years ago). And the last American troops left Iraq in 2011. Today Iraq
has a Shia government… unless what was done to Lee Rigby was retrospective
punishment or retribution for 2003. In that case, when Muslims talk about India
and Spain as ‘Islamic lands’, they too are justified in demanding retrospective
justice and retribution. After all, they were thrown out of these lands – even
though they had conquered them in the first place!

On the issue of Tony Blair.

Of course Blair is going to distance
himself from the EDL. Even if what he said about the ‘problem within Islam’ was
word for word what the EDL says, he would still try to distance himself.

Like Blair, certain politicians, councillors, newspaper
journalists, etc. are finally tackling
issues (such as Muslim radicalisation, Muslim grooming, etc.) which were systematically
ignored until the EDL and other groups/individuals started to bring them to
their attention. Then they realised that they could no longer ignore such
things. Yet despite all that they still insist on accusing people of being ‘far
right’ and ‘bigoted’ because of their criticism of Islam and of Muslims (as
Muslims). This means that only now it is right and correct to be critical. It’s
also only acceptable to be critical if you're one of them and if you criticise
in the way they criticise. In other words, these slow learners (when it comes
to Islam) want to set the entire agenda when it comes to criticism of Islam and
Muslims. Anyone who does so outside that agenda, or independently of the established
political parties and newspapers, will still be treated with contempt. And yet
most of these people still know next to nothing about Islam, its history and the
massive and systematic persecution of non-Muslims by Muslims throughout the world.